So in short consumers should now buy unlocked and not subsidized phones. If carriers don't want to activate your unlocked device because their firmware is not on the phone then they could also tell you to go screw yourself.

Which damages the used cellphone market and will also give carriers greater control of what devices are on the network and how they are used.

In the process though it gives us less options so they can feel safer. It's also a indirect benefit for handset makers and allows for the use of backdoors because it's "Their firmware".]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27946455Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:07:02 EDTRe: yeah, okayhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27946341
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27946341Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:36:29 EDTRe: yeah, okayhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27946261
This is about greed, carriers can make it harder to switch by refusing to unlock your phone, even if your contract is up or you've left and paid the etf, which in reality pays for the rest of your subsidized phone not the mention the boom for phone manufacturers to increase sales, as more phones become harder to resell.

With T-mobile's refarm and bring your own device promotion. I fully expect AT&T to start refusing to unlock phones, regardless of your contract being over. Verizon and Sprint may be better about it, as their phones aren't easily moved from one carrier to another. It's anticompetitive and anticonsumer, they shouldn't have the right to tell you what you can do with a device you own.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27946261Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:17:04 EDTRe: yeah, okayhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-yeah-okay-27945921
said by ArrayList:

As long as this rule remains in place, I will never buy a phone from a carrier again. My property is MY property.